Foster agrees with King Solomon that, “There is nothing new under the sun.” Foster, applies this to his overall concept that “writing and telling belong to one big story.” I perceive this as a way to explain that life is one big story. There is nothing that one person has experienced that no one else on the world has. Therefore, the common fairytales that are passed down by generations have all involved by experience. One that is very well known would be the story of Snow White. The theme of the tale has never changed, but in the original version by The Brothers Grimm, at the very end, the evil queen was presented with a punishment for the wrongs she has acted upon. Now, the story is not as twisted as before. This adds a bittersweet experience to reading due to the way the story is perceived by different generations. Before, Snow White was just an innocent girl finding love and friends. Now, she can be seen as a girl of empowerment, which is a large concept in society today. The differences may be subtle, but they show the change in the characteristics throughout the history of the world. Another topic that builds on Foster's idea is that one way to express oneself is through art. Literature allows people to write stories about real and made up life situations. Personally, I take this as trying to make sense of the world around us. Whenever I sit down to write a short story, I think of different endings to the stories and many different ways to reach the end goal. Life is just one big story in the end and as King Solomon would say, more than likely it is nothing new. Someone else has experienced the same situation.
I think it’s an interesting approach to think of life as nothing new. That people don’t go through the same exact things buts one dog has lived through something so similar that they can say they have been through the same thing. Stories are all the same but the meaning can change for whomever is reading it and how they are translating it. People are good at seeing what they choose to see. As you mentioned, Snow White has changed into a social figure because the people have made her to be one. We try to use stories somewhat as recording history. The princesses in Disney have been preaching women empowerment but they weren’t originally. Originally, they were meant to show women need men. Times change, stories add altered, but they’re really the same stories.
ReplyDeleteAs I read your response, I love the fact that you used fairytales for your example about life and how life is literally nothing new. Life, in a sense, is a huge story that each individual person conducts themselves. Although we humans are told we are special and that we can do anything that we set our mind to, the outcome will end up being the same as everyone else’s. As a reader and writer, each story is typically different, though having specific characteristics that are the same. It’s like a revolving door, some things just never changing and always staying the same.
ReplyDeleteI agree that all thoughts have been thought and all experiences have been had. Storytelling is a tool used to express these archetypal concepts that are constant throughout generations. Foster asserts that many symbols are constant throughout literature in the same way. This shows the concept of “nothing new under the sun”.
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